Andrew Cusworth is a Welsh composer and conductor, best known for his choral music. His work has been published by Novello, Curiad, and Tŷ Cerdd, and performed by musicians ranging from schoolchildren to the BBC Singers, in venues from car parks to cathedrals.
Raised in Pembrokeshire, Andrew learned the 'cello, piano, and organ. He began composing and conducting in his early teens, establishing a choir and orchestra at the age of fifteen, and giving performances of his early works in programmes of early and contemporary music; composing and conducting have remained the focus of his activities since. He went on to read music at Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar at Magdalene College. He later returned to Cambridge to read an MMus in Choral Studies. He holds a doctorate from the Open University on the archival record of Welsh traditional music.
In 2010, his piece Factum est silentium won the inaugural New Music for St Paul's Cathedral composition competition. He has since been commissioned by ensembles and soloists including Calmus Ensemble, the Choir of Salisbury Cathedral, and John Turner, while continuing to help realise the musical aspirations of amateur ensembles through writing that is both flexible and effective. From 2012 to 2014 he was composer in residence with Concanenda. His first Welsh-language piece, Gosber, was written for Côr ABC in 2014 and published by Curiad; a later competition piece written for the choir helped them secure 'Choir of the Festival' at Gŵyl Fawr Aberteifi. Welsh commissions have followed, including Aberystwyth Arts Centre's first-ever musical commission, and a work commissioned by Tŷ Cerdd for the restored organ of Capel Soar in Merthyr Tydfil.
Andrew's music teases at the boundary between what is easily accessible to listeners and a more complex musical language, inviting performers and audiences into a world where simple harmony is made to sound stark, and dissonance to soothe. Many of his scores are written with deliberately loose tempi and dynamics, or for variable ensembles and patterns of performance; some even have multiple endings. In the end, the writing is only the beginning of the music.
News
Plentyn y Ddaear on tour with the National Youth Choir of Wales
18 August 2026
Plentyn y Ddaear received its world premiere at St Asaph Cathedral on 19 August, sung by the National Youth Choir of Wales under Tim Rhys-Evans MBE, on the first night of the choir’s national tour. It then travelled with the choir to St Davids Cathedral on 20 August, and the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, on 21 August.
The piece helped Andrew to win Medal y Cyfansoddwr at this year’s National Eisteddfod, where Tim Rhys-Evans was one of the three judges. Andrew attended the second night of the tour, at Tyddewi, which saw the work performed in the home county of both the poet, Waldo Williams, and the composer.
Andrew was awarded Medal y Cyfansoddwr at the National Eisteddfod 2026, for settings of two poems by the Pembrokeshire poet Waldo Williams: Y Ci Coch for children’s choir, and Plentyn y Ddaear for mixed choir. Both were sung during the day’s events: during the judges’ deliberations, Y Ci Coch by a specially formed children’s choir under Rhys Owain Griffiths, and Plentyn y Ddaear by Octave Cymru under Caleb Mock. Y Ci Coch was later given its first public performance at the ceremony.
The award was the final ceremony of Eisteddfod y Garreg Las, the eisteddfod of Andrew’s home county, Pembrokeshire, and was judged by Tim Rhys-Evans, Robert Fokkens, and Branwen Haf.
As well as being a competition, Medal y Cyfansoddwr was a development pathway, for which three composers (Andrew, Gwenno Morgan, and Claire Victoria Roberts) were chosen to take part from 30 entries. They were tasked with setting the same two poems, working together with the composer Nathan James Dearden as mentor. The competition and the pathway were supported by the National Eisteddfod, Tŷ Cerdd, Crynwyr Cymru, and Cymdeithas Cyfansoddwyr Cymru.
This is a piece whose effect greatly exceeds its simple means and it would be welcome in any serious carol service.
It provided an excellent example of a responsible, learned composer whose work is at once of our own time and of the great continuum of composers.
Spicy dissonances, lyrical melodies, baleful phrases. Cusworth makes highly effective use of his four stringed instruments as well as challenging his soloist.
There are many little gems, among them Andrew Cusworth's Of a rose synge we.
Awards
Medal y Cyfansoddwr, National Eisteddfod, winner, Y Ci Coch and Plentyn y Ddaear, 2026
Classical Music Digital Awards, Highly Commended, yn un rhith project, 2020
King James Bible Awards, shortlisted, Give ear, O ye heavens, 2011
New Music for St Paul's Cathedral Composition Competition, winner, Factum est silentium, 2010
Recordings
all our numbered lives on 41 Statements zur Coronazeit, Calmus Ensemble, 2021
Of a rose synge we on The Silver Stars at Play, Kantos, directed by Ellie Slorach, 2017
From Castle Hill on The Nostalgic Recorder, John Turner and the Manchester Chamber Ensemble, 2015
There is no rose, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, and Drop down, ye heavens on Bright Shadows, Concanenda, directed by Xann Schwinn, 2013
There is no rose on Noël! 3, RSVP Singers, directed by David Hill, 2012
Published by
Tŷ Cerdd — Esgyn Soar (2023)
Curiad — Gosber, SSAA (2019) and SATB (2017)
Novello — Adam lay ibownden in The Novello Book of Short and Easy Anthems (2015); There is no rose in Noël! 3 and as a single octavo (2012)
Contact
For commissions, scores, performances, or a workshop with your choir,
write to email@andrewcusworth.com.
If you are working on any of his pieces or planning a performance, Andrew
would be very pleased to hear about it.
